## Thomas Mieling

### University of Vienna

I am a PhD student in physics, working at the University of Vienna. My current research is on light propagation in curved space-times with emphasis on gravitational wave backgrounds.

### Interests

• General Relativity
• Optics

### Education

• MSc in Physics, 2019

University of Vienna

• BSc in Physics, 2017

University of Vienna

# Recent Posts

### Notes on Isham’s "Modern Differential Geometry for Physicists"

A collection of notes on “Modern Differential Geometry for Physicists” by Chris J. Isham.

### Noether's theorem applied to classical electrodynamics

Derivation of Conservation Laws for Charge, the Energy–Momentum and Angular Momentum

# Recent & Upcoming Talks

### On the Influence of Earth's Rotation on Electromagnetic Waves

I discuss first order perturbations of guided electromagnetic waves which arise due to Earth’s rotation (both around the Sun and its own axis). Considering cylindrical waveguides as an example, the correction to the dispersion relation is computed and it is shown that nearby angular modes are coupled, giving rise to sidebands.

### On Electromagnetic Duality

We discuss the general notion of electromagnetic duality in abelian gauge theories. Considering coupled Maxwell fields in particular, we discuss how the symplectic group arises as the group of duality transformations.

### On the Classification of Complex Semisimple Lie Algebras of Finite Dimension

We discuss the mathematical methods which lead to the full classification of semisimple Lie algebras. Following the book Groups, Representations and Physics by H. F. Jones in outline, we discuss various criteria for the semisimplicity of Lie algebras, introduce the root space decomposition and the notion of simple roots. The Cartan matrix leads to the pictorial representation of root systems by means of Dynkin diagrams, which we derive explicitly for the group $SU(n)$.